Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or  challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Music Video 

Our music video includes influences from other videos of the same genre. We were influenced by the original video for the 'American Boy' and 'No Substitute Love' both by Estelle and 'Not Afraid' by Eminem. The use of camera work in american boy gave us ideas as we were planning our shots, as the screen shots below show, we have some shots that are either set or shot similar for example we see Kanye West whispering to Estelle's ear, this show the relation between the two artist and reflects their flirtatious side and we were influenced by this to reflect the same message to the audience for our video. Estelle's video to no substitute highlights the style of women within the genre of r&b and from this video we were influenced by the shot of the shoes which is a very important symbol to indicate the female artist. The shot of Josh (male singer) while singing to the camera throughout his part in the song, is set very similar to the video of 'not afraid', as Eminem sings directly to the camera with body movements, usually uses his hands to illustrate his feelings and meaning of the song, this is used within our video to give the audience a clear view of the male singers mood, feeling and also his hand movements used to illustrate the meaning of his lyrics.  

The screen shots are taken from videos that we were influenced by and linked with our music video.

Estelle - No Substitute Love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLb1Iwkt2R0&ob=av2el
Eminem - Not Afraid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5-yKhDd64s

Digipak and advertisement 


Throughout my planning process for my digipak and advertisement I had a chance to look at variety of different examples and all included basic information that should be included within a product, such as the artist and album name, production company, copyright and barcode. I was mainly influenced by Rihanna's digipak and advertisement for 'Rated R'. The layout and style of the cover and advert was suitable for its genre. The artist was shot clearly and was making direct eye contact with the viewers. The link between the two products (digipak and advertisement) included the same image which set a clear link and I believe it was successful overall.  

 

  

 

2. How effective is the combination of your main product    

(video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)? 

I believe the combination of my main product and ancillary text makes clear visual links and fits well with our music video. The main reason for this is that our artist in the video is clearly viewed on the products that I have created so therefore the audience can create a visual link within all. The weak link between my products and the music video is the style as the video is created in a r&b style but the products highlights a different style, but this can be referred as artist is working within a different style but the album includes a song in r&b. 

Shots of our main artist from the video shows clear link to the images I have used

3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 

Media technologies allowed us to construct our research planning and evaluation stages, we used different media technologies in producing different tasks such the main product (music video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement) and the following information and videos will show what technologies I have used and how.

Equipment

Research                               Click onto the stills to enlarge

Blogger

Using Quark and Adobe Photoshop

 

Final Cut Pro 

Final Cut Pro is a video editing program. The software allows users to log and capture video onto hard drive, where it can be edited, processed and output to wide variety of formats. Before using this program to create our video clip we had short tutorial on lip synch and used Final Cut Pro to do this. This has allowed us to indicate many features within this program to edit clips. Such as creating bass tracks and including markers to the beat to match the lip movements to the song and layering each clip that was shot in different angles and cut each clip using razor blade to create a pattern within all shots,  (this was particularly used in our final video whilst josh is singing to the camera and the shots from two different locations are seen). Including transition tool at the beginning of our video has made it look very realistic as the transitions were added to the rhythm of the song. Overall Final Cut pro has allowed us to use may tools to bring together all our clips from the filming process and produce a final outcome. Along the side of an digital storyboard we also produced animatic storyboard and this is done by using Final Cut Pro. 

imovie

Throughout my evaluation, I have produced some short videos. These are created using imovie which is a program that is used on imac's. This was a useful program to create short videos in short time and I believe it was very useful and made my work look very interesting with the use of text, transitions, music and voice over.  

4. What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

Audience feedback (First reaction after the preview in cinema)

       

The feedbacks we have show we had strengths and weaknesses to our video. I believe one of the main reasons that our video was successful because it was suitable for its genre as mis-en-scene was very appropriate and also performances of the two artists was very realistic as the connection between them were good. The comments about the light was very on spot as we had a problem with a screen that was effecting the exposure of our shots whilst filming in Piccadilly and I believe we should of included more close-up or mid shots of the female artist whilst performing as we mostly see the artists performing to the camera in a r&b music video. 

Strengths

• Mise-en-scene and locations linked well with the lyrics 
• 
  
• Artists emphasised their roles
• 
  
• Singing was in synch
• 
  
• Match cuts worked well
• 
  
• Editing overall was suitable for the genre

Improvements

• Lighting - this could be improved as some shots was really dark and change of light at the background was effecting the exposure

• Shots - more close up or mid shots could of been used 

Planning: Changes in digipak and advertisement

I have made major changes to my digipak and advertisement. The plan I have set to use did not work well whilst I was producing the product as the photographs I have taken did not establish the artist clearly and did not meet basic rules and criteria's. The images I have decided to use within a theme and style has not particularly fit well with the genre of the song we have chosen, but as this is a single song within an album I wanted to highlight the actual style of the artist. 

Production: Completed Advertisement

Production: Completed Digipak

Planning: Mock-up of my Advertisement

Planning: Mock-up of my Digipak

Planning: Photos that will be used on Digipak and Advertisement

Planning: Overview of 'Do's and Don't' of design work

Planning: Digipak - fonts, colours, layout and design ideas

Font:
Lucida Sans

Colour Scheme:
Purple Black White

Layout:

Front Cover -  Mid shot image of artist in contrast of black and white positoned on white background. Text will be placed on the left side of the photograph of the artist in purple text of the artist and album name.

Research: Analysis of advertisements

An advertisement should include similar construction to the digipak for the audience to recognise it. As I have analysed the digipaks of artists within the genre of R&B, I have then analysed their advertisement and clearly saw that creating links between the digipak and an advert is very important for the production to work well together. Audiences are the main target for their product so therefore I believe there should be a theme within their product for audience to be familiar with.  


The Diary Of Alicia Keys

This advert contains a different image to their digipak but the colour scheme and the font type is held the same which certainly highlights the cover it belongs to. 

Rihanna R Rated

Rihanna's advert contain the same image of her digipak. The use of red within the advertisement has added colour to the advert and made useful information clear, as black and white could not be that appealing when too much of information is included. 

Usher Raymond V Raymond

This advert makes every useful information very clear with the selection of font, as it was the same with the digipak. The image is different but it was shot at the same place and the lighting creates a great effect as it was on the digipak so therefore as an audience we can see the similarities and know which artist the advert belongs to. 

Research: Analysis of digipaks

  of R&B artists usually focus their digipak covers on themselves. They are usually simple by the use of tone and effect. 

 The Diary Of Alicia Keys

Front

                                    

The CD includes different keys laid on a white background these could simply connote 'the keys of her diary' as the album name is 'the diary of alicia keys' or either to create a link to her second name. 

BACK

                           

The back cover includes whole image of the piano and excludes the artists. This certainly shows the importance of the piano to the artists and it plays a great role in her life.  

Rihanna R Rated

Front 

Eventhough Rihanna is an R&B artist the cover of her digipak for this album mainly focuses on genre of rock as the image is created by the dark theme including the pose in severe black and white head shot. The letter R is placed on the right corner representing the firts letter of her name and the name of her album and it seems like a symbol to the cover. 

CD

The CD cover shows the continuos theme of dark black and grey colours. The main focus on this cover is the R in the centre as it reinforces the symbol. 


Back

The back cover also shows the characteristics of the rock music by the style that is been used. The artist is positioned as if she is interrupted whilst walking into the darkness. The back of the cover also lists what songs are featured in the album with the other artists  in the use of the same font used for the title. 

Usher Raymond V Raymond

Front

The front cover for this digipak is structured with of dark colour scheme of black, which the lighting on the artists reflects him clearly. The size and the font type makes the artist and the song name clear for audience to see. 

CD

The CD cover is held very simple as I believe the front and back covers contain image. The font type allows us to see that the CD is suitable for its cover as the structure of the type is kept the same, such as the use of R is reversed for each side on covers and on CD. 


Back

The back cover gives a clear view of where Usher is as the front cover is a close up of him leaning forward. The colour scheme is held the same as well as the use of font. 

All the images that is used within the digipak are usually manipulated in some way (effect) and usually have close or mid shots focused mainly on artists. 

A digipak is created by appropriate use of:

• Images 
• Font 
• Layout 
• Background 
• Text 
• Language
• Barcode 
• Copyright 
• Titles 
• Artist name 

Alicia Keys is a pianist and we get this impression clearly from the front cover of her digipak. The piano suggests that it is part of her and it represents the other half of her as the way its been positioned. Her confidence is highlighted by her staring straight as she is looking at the audience. 

CD

Planning: Test shots for lighting & mise-en-scene.